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Tuesday Open Thread

by afew Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 12:38:26 PM EST

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Roulez-boulez!
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 12:39:00 PM EST
Laissez bon temps roulez, woolly-bully.

Here's the muslim brotherhood version (that's a joke)

the better version is from the Texas Tornados, but the sound sucks.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 01:14:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Since we're back that far, look how far Lady Gaga has taken us. For DoDo.

PS. I spent a summer in the woods singing this, substituting for locomotion, Xochimilco. To this day, i don't know why. Thought you shoulc know.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 01:24:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Xochimilco

Funnily enough, I always thought the principle line of the chorus in this song was "I believe in milko"



keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 01:28:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
i believed then, and still believe, in milkos.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
by Crazy Horse on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 01:41:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
And tonight, i also believe in Pinküs Pils, which i've drunk in two versions, and can't decide which is better. One has all manner of little things floating around in it, naturtrüb and ungefiltered.

This is not helping me finish the evening's work, caused by taking the afternoon off, as we had that round yellow thing in the sky, and it felt good after so many weeks without, that i followed the advice of German nutritionists lately, stating we must expose more skin to the sun that it imbibes more vitamin D, to the consternation of skin doctors who continue to say "cover up," though fuck them, especially as i was correct in my prognosis, since i enjoyed the 4 hours of real summer, and it's now raining again, though only hard for a few minutes, which keeps the streets real clean, which is important if you forget to leave your shoes at the door, which can happenwhen yoiu are thynking about something else.

As i did not mount the Fahrrad today, i am now jealous of eurogreen. Plus he gets to visit the Austin Babe in Berchtesgaden. the rain has of course stopped. the bier has not.

The first 2.2 GW of the 4.2 GW irish Sea offshore windplant were formally proposed yesterday, with a journalist calling it almost half the potential.

The environmental and finance ministers in 'Schland have decided to hedge their bets on the transition to renewables. Who could have pre-what?

I'm a rainbow, yes, like robert de niro, demonstrate. to the rescue.



"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 02:49:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
If you don't know this one, please check it out. If you do...

demonstrate, Hi.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:42:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]
You believe in pink pills?

ah Bavarian bier. Perhaps I can find a spa where I can bathe in it. With the Badfrau perhaps.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Wed Jul 18th, 2012 at 03:11:17 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I'm struggling now, because this version is not the same one they play on the oldies station. So in searching for it on YouTube I ran into this version which (despite it's irritating snare--maybe I'm just old and deaf) is actually better. Little Eva was not all that great of a singer, or perhaps Kylie has better studio support...

Maybe it's not fair to compare remakes, but still...

by asdf on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 02:19:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany because it may contain irritants to the digestive profit system of GEMA.

Would otherwise comment, but have been silenced thereon.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 02:22:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Umm, if the backing band are 'sposed to egyptians, why's the singer wearing a sikh turban ??

{/pedant}

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 01:24:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Pop in amurka back then, while at the same time, Dylan exploded all that previously existed. With The Band partly responsible.

Sam's accountant was a Sikh.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 01:27:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 02:41:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Should be, in French, laisse le bon temps rouler = let the good times roll.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 02:43:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Frickin Geil!

That's the one i was thinking of when i conflated bon temps roulez boulez with woolly bully. Cajun creme broullez.

PS. Merci for the official french.

PPS. We are not gwin to get the work done that we planned. C'est la vie.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:02:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I think woolly bully is an anglicisation of roulez boulez. Maybe roulez boulez (roll and bowl?) was a dance.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:46:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Damn. I always thought this was the original :
Au bonheur des dames

Uno dos tres quatro
Pour les vacances,
J'emmerde Bison-futé,
Pour traverser toute la France,
Le seul moyen d'arriver

Roulez bourrés, roulez bourrés,
Roulez bourrés, roulez bourrés, roulez bourrés

(roulez bourrés = drive drunk)

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Wed Jul 18th, 2012 at 03:17:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]
A strange day. Not only did it not rain at all, but the sun actually shone this morning.

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 01:25:15 PM EST
The PM whatever of Spain has decided to increase taxes retroactively on wind projects in Spain. So much for the sanctity     of  deals.

These people must go. Now.  ((How?))

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 01:50:02 PM EST
Barricades.
by asdf on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 02:21:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Every single one of us has to have their own Niemöller moment.



If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 02:40:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Huh....  

One of the real ironies of this is likely to be that this is actually going to harm the balance sheets of smaller Spanish banks.

I haven't looked through the statistics in about year, but if you sort out the owners of wind projects in Spain, over half (as I recall) are held by project specific investment groups in which local banks have a stake.

Meaning that while this tax hike will strike the mega-companies like Iberdrola and Acciona, the hardest impact is likely to be on these smaller operators for whom fixed costs are going to be higher.

I'd like to see specifically how the law is written, but it seems at the least that it would have been a better move to phase in the increased taxes based on the age of the project.  For a 10 year old project, this sort of hit will probably be weathered, but for something built this year it's going to limit the ability to pay back construction costs.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:04:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
One of the real ironies of this is likely to be that this is actually going to harm the balance sheets of smaller Spanish banks.

Not that Rajoy gives a flying fuck.

His tax and expenditure measures will most likely increase the rate of non-performing loans in the spanish economy in the next 12 months by a lot.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:08:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes, but it will add to the crisis.  

I still don't think that the sovereign debt issue has been dealt with, and I think that we are rapidly approaching a point in time where there will simply have to be a decision made.  And I think that the only viable option is bankruptcy. Of course without long term measures to either: 1) Restore the competitiveness of the periphery, or 2) Facilitate the wholesale transfer of portions of the labor force from periphery to core, we are all still fucked.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:21:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Oh, but we are fucked.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:22:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The really disturbing thing for me is that there are basically two ways that people can respond to a crisis in a state or other organization:  Voice or Exit.

Voice is the normal way that politics works in developed countries.  You bitch, you moan, but eventually you arrive at some sort of a solution that works within the existing system. Voice is system-affirming in that way.

Exit is something we rarely see.  Where politics becomes so pointless that people vote with their feet.  Or refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the state.  At best that means lots of protests. At worst, if the ballot doesn't work people start to think about opting for the bullet.......

Greece seems to be will down that path, and a lot of other countries don't seem far behind.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:29:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The existing system is fucked. We fucked when we signed the Maastricht Treaty.

A lot of people are going to have to exit before we come to the new system, which will not be one I personally will want to live in.

We have been warned.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:33:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Is this really something limited to Europe, as invoking Maastricht would imply?

The crises that EU members have been playing out have parallels in the US.  Several municipalities have declared bankruptcy, and it's not out of the realm of the possible that a state or two will do the same before the mess is cleared up.

It seems to me in some sense that the EU has even tighter central control that the US, because a US state can declare bankruptcy but an EU member seems to be precluded from that option.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:44:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, the US could still engage in sovereign funding of job creation. In Europe that is illegal. In fact it is illegal even if you're not in the Euro because article 123 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union band monetary financing of the public sector for all European national central banks and all European public institutions at all levels of government, whether or not they are in the Eurozone.

This, from today, is relevant: Congress, Not the Fed, Needs to 'Get to Work' (17 Jul 2012, John Carney)

Schumer's argument amounted to the idea that that because disagreements between Republican and Democrats (and, of course, the political ambitions of members of both parties in a presidential election year) are blocking any agreement to provide fiscal relief to the economy, the Fed should "get to work."

...

The economy right now suffers because the private sector is attempting to save more than it spends, mostly by paying down its enormous debt burden. Because everyone's income comes from someone else's spending, reduced overall spending results in income reduction. In our economy, that means higher unemployment.

...

With the rest of the world heading toward recession, the only plausible source of this added income is the government. In other words, the government must cut taxes relative to spending (or grow spending relative to taxes) to replace the lost income in the private sector.

What the economy certainly isn't suffering from right now is a shortage of liquidity or a meager money supply. Which is to say, we've reached the limits of what the Fed can do to spur growth. (Although perhaps not the limits of what the Fed can do to fend off a sharp turn downward in the economy.)

But the US Fed does have a dual inflation/unemployment mandate, though apparently it also cannot directly fund the federal government (as a result of some Fed/Treasury agreement dating back to the 1950s). But the US Congress could conceivably vote to repeal that particular bit of legislation tomorrow. Good luck getting 27 EU states to agree to reform the EU treaties.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:52:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I still don't think that the sovereign debt issue has been dealt with

Again, not that Rajoy gives a flying fuck.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:23:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Miguel, may I say that you seem even more upbeat today than normal.

Not that you're wrong, just incredibly depressing.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:30:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Did you know in the last 5 days we have had anti-cuts pronouncements from police, guardia civil, and military unions? That Moncloa palace staff heckled the ministers as they came in for Friday's council of ministers? That a couple hundred off-dury national police picketed the interior minister with vuvuzelas today at an event to introduce this year's "class" of new police officers?

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:37:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes.  

But this isn't just Spain. It's a lot of places.

The city of Scranton in Pennsylvania just slashed all city employees pay to the minimum wage.

My suggestion is that sometimes it's best to take a break for one's sanity and health. Just saying.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:49:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
We're not quite there yet, but...
In a classic coup d'état, a rebel faction which controls some element of the armed forces seizes control of the state by sudden movement, organized and executed in stealth. In a pronunciamiento, a group of military officers publicly declare their opposition to the current government (that is, the present chief executive and cabinet, who may be legally elected civilians, or the result of a previous coup).

The rebels then wait for the rest of the armed forces to declare for or against the government. Generally, a pronunciamento is preceded by a period of preparation, when the would-be rebels "sound out" as many other officers as possible to determine if their views are widely shared.

There is no fighting at this point; if the rebellion has no support, the organizers lose. They may have to flee the country, or retire from the armed forces, or may be arrested. If the bulk of the armed forces declare in favor of the pronunciamiento, the government resigns. It is similar to a vote of no-confidence, except that issued by the armed forces, not by the legislature.

It is a joke that it's come to this. The Basque Country has a better credit rating than the government of Spain. The Catalan Government  has been insinuating that the Spanish government might "intervene" their budget, but the Spanish finance minister has not helped things by declaring that he's going to send his own "men in black" to the regions (after wrongly predicting that the EU would not send any "men in black" to his ministry). The Andalusian regional government just announced that it is reversing its previous 5% public employee wage cut in reaction to the government's ducking of the 14th payment (7% wage cut) for all public employees. It would be the supreme irony if it Spain were to break up under a PP government, given that the PP was accusing ZP of "breaking up Spain" just because he encoureged a round of reforms of regions' autonomy statutes. What the EU has wrought!

In other news, the National Council for Scientific Research is stopping or delaying all payments as of today (apparently they have not been receiving government funds for two months).

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 04:00:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
ElPais.com in English: Low-earning state workers exempt from bonus blow
Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro on Tuesday came out with a curiously belated but welcome surprise for civil servants earning less than 1.5 times the minimum wage by explaining that, unlike the rest of Spain's public sector workers, they will not be deprived of their traditional extra monthly payment at Christmas time.

Speaking in the Senate, Montoro took pains to emphasize that the exception was included in the official state gazette (BOE) published last Saturday, which contained details of a series of spending cuts and tax hikes worth 65 billion euros over the next two and a half years, the biggest austerity package since democracy was restored in Spain over 30 years ago.

...

The minister said the dispensation for lower wage earners would affect between 10,000 and 15,000 state employees, but did not offer figures for civil servants at other levels of the public administration, whose total workforce amounts to more than 2.69 million.



If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:30:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Riot cop: Hey, what are you doing?
Minister: Don't worry, I'm only taking your Christmas pay
Demonstrator: These [hands] are our weapons!!
Minister: But go on, go on, don't get distracted.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 04:36:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
the tariff in Spain has ALWAYS had a retroactive component (well, partly retroactive - the government can change that tariff that will apply in the coming year to existing projects) - I remember very well flagging that issue in 2002 in my first report on Spanish wind. It was deemed acceptable because the Spanish government had a good track record of ensuring that the tariff would remain at a level consistent with the viability of the projects.

I have little sympathy with the developers who have been screaming about the cuts in tariffs - they just lost windfall profits, and the lower tariffs could still make projects work. As far as I know, wind projects have not gone bankrupt because of the new tariffs (or if they did, it's because they had unrealistic assumptions - we did exit the Spanish market in 2006-2007 because the deals were too aggressive, meaning that the safety buffer was smaller than it should have been on many deals - so there are probably suffering today, but, in a sense, it's not unfair as they made casino-type bets to get outsized profits.

Wind power

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Wed Jul 18th, 2012 at 07:18:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]
This was not about the future tariff changes, but a new tax. Probably designed to balance out some of the net operator debt.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
by Crazy Horse on Wed Jul 18th, 2012 at 10:04:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]
See ElPais.

I have no idea what kind of harebrained journalist thinks "Mgw" is an energy unit.

Assuming it means MWh (you'll tell me if that makes sense order-of-magnitude-wise):

€10/MWh on Nuclear
€15/MWh on Hydro
2% (€4/MWh) throughout

"manageable"
4.5% on biomass
4% on cogeneration
3% minihydro
13% solar thermal

"not manageable"
11% wind
19% solar PV

€0.04/m3 on hydrocarbon gases


If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jul 18th, 2012 at 10:20:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
the Spanish government had a good track record of ensuring that the tariff would remain at a level consistent with the viability of the projects

Nothing you knew about Europe before 2010 is guaranteed after.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jul 18th, 2012 at 10:21:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]
BBC - Kadima quits Israel government over conscription law

Israel's Kadima party has left Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in a dispute over military conscription for ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Kadima, the largest party in the Knesset, had only joined the coalition in May to avoid an early election.

But it failed to reach an agreement with Mr Netanyahu's Likud on replacing the Tal Law, under which seminary students can defer military service.

In February, the Supreme Court declared that the law was unconstitutional.



keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 03:12:19 PM EST
the industry is barely adolescent, but the media already makes teenage angst newsworthy. With an ET connection. (from Bloomberg)

Offshore Wind Slump Means No Firm Orders For GE, Siemens


One unconditional order was made, for 216 megawatts, 75 percent less than in the same period of 2011 and the worst start for a year since at least 2009, according to preliminary data from MAKE Consulting, a Danish wind-energy adviser. Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS) of Denmark, the largest manufacturer, won the contract while Germany's Siemens AG (SIE) was among those shut out.
....
"The industry in Germany has been frozen for a few months because of grid issues," said Jerome Guillet, the Paris-based managing director of Green Giraffe Energy Bankers, which advises on offshore wind projects. In the U.K., there's a "lull" as the government moves to a new round of contracting, he said.
....
(reality, Ed.)
Most U.K. and German projects have reserved turbines needed through 2015, though with conditions, said Robert Clover, research director at MAKE.

ALL of the "problems" addressed in the article are being worked on with full attention, from financing to cable production. But you can't expect the media to understand teenagers.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 04:09:13 PM EST
Full on media press... headline Spiggle Doubts



"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 04:48:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]
2012/H1 statistics are out and the tone is rather upbeat.

I wrote the financing section, which is actually mostly full of good news.

Wind power

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Wed Jul 18th, 2012 at 06:53:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Michael Hudson: Europe's three needs: a debt write-down, a real central bank, and a more efficient tax system (Brussels Talk, Madariaga College, Governing Globalisation in a World Economy in Transition, June 27, 2012)
The term "neoliberalism" misrepresents and even inverts the classical liberal idea of free markets. It is a weaponization of economic theory, kidnapping the original liberal ethic that sought to defend against special privilege and unearned income. To classical economists, a free market meant one free of unearned income, defined as land rent, natural resource rent, monopoly rent and rent-extracting privilege. But to neoliberals a free market is one free from taxes or regulation of such rentier income, and indeed gives it tax favoritism over wages and profits.

...

Today, the neoliberal aim is to cripple government power, enabling a free-for-all for the financial sector. Protecting civil freedoms are also heavily signposted, but the high price of legal representation is a barrier for most. A doctrine primarily of the financial sector, the aim is to un-tax banks and financial institutions and their major customers: real estate and monopolies.

...

The result is a doctrine of financial war not only against labor but also against industry and government. Gaining the financial power to indebt economies at increasing speed, the banking and financial sector is siphoning resources away from the real economy. Its business plan is not based on employing labor to expand output, but simply to transfer as much of the existing flow of revenue as possible into its own hands, by capitalizing all such revenue into interest payments, on loans collateralized and pledged to creditors.



If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 at 04:44:01 PM EST


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